


Yo Ho, Yo Ho,  A Pirate's Life (Not) For Me

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: AU Mashup [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Betrayal, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Pirate AU, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 03:39:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15258606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: The Winchester name is feared on the high seas, but it's respected as well.  When John disappeared, Dean took up the family legacy.  Sam stayed in the safety of being a blacksmith's apprentice, until the day the Royal Navy came looking for him.





	Yo Ho, Yo Ho,  A Pirate's Life (Not) For Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written for AU Mashup Challenge: Soulmate AU, Pirate AU, Military AU  
> (Naturally, this became the Inspired By Pirates of the Caribbean AU.)

Sam couldn’t escape the tales of his family. John "Black Jack" Winchester was reputed to be one of the fiercest pirates of the seven seas, and you didn’t cross him if you knew what was good for you. Even the Royal Navy gave him as wide a berth as they could get away with.

Then one day, he just… vanished. For once, he’d left his sons in port, with orders to find some sort of respectable work for cover until he came back, and then he didn’t come back. Dean only lasted a year before he signed on with a pirate crew. When he came back six months later to check on Sammy, he had taken over the ship. He was a pirate captain, Mean Dean Winchester, or Jackson Winchester, and he was searching for their dad and carrying on the legacy. “Come with me, Sammy. I miss you.”

As badly as it hurt, as much as he missed Dean, too, he wouldn’t go. He couldn’t. “I’m not a pirate, Dean. You know Dad always kept me out of everything, said I didn’t have the stomach for pirating, and he was right. I’m staying here. I’ve got a good apprenticeship with a good master, my prospects are good, I’m good.”

“So, what, you’re gonna stay here, be a blacksmith, marry some girl, live a normal life?”

“Not normal,” Sam said. “Safe.”

Dean’s head dropped. “Sammy, man, please. Please come with me, I need you.”

“I’ll always be here. This town has an accord with the pirates – you behave yourselves in our port, we welcome you and treat you the same as anyone else, and keep the Navy men out. It’s safe for you to come visit as often as you’re in the area. I can’t go with you, Dean. I _can’t_.” Sam’s voice was thick with the unshed tears that sparkled in his eyes.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m getting that. See you around, then.” Dean had given him a mock salute and walked back to his ship, and Sam hadn’t seen him since.

 

For the next three years, Sam heard the tales of Black Jack Winchester and his son, Mean Dean, who had taken up the mantle. Then, for three months… nothing. Sam took to hanging around the docks in his free time and asking evert ship that sailed in, and there was nothing.

One day, the unthinkable happened. A Royal Navy ship sailed into the harbor, and docked. The pirates who were ashore hid as much evidence as they could, but the entire town held its breath while they waited for someone to explain what the Royal Navy was doing here.

The officer who walked off the ship looked young, maybe a couple years older than Dean, no older than twenty-five. He walked up to the nearest person who looked like they weren’t terrified. “I’m looking for a man by the name of Sam Wesson. If you will kindly point him out or take me to him, I can conclude my business and leave your good town alone.”

“Sam Wesson? The blacksmith’s boy? What d’you want with him?” Ellen demanded.

“I can’t tell you that,” the officer said. “I can only say that it is of great import that I find him.”

“Is he in trouble? You can at least give us that much, if you want us to give him up,” Ellen snapped.

The officer shook his head. “No. Sam Wesson is not in trouble. His brother, however…”

Sam stepped forward. “I’m Sam Wesson.” He ignored Ellen’s attempt to stop him as he approached. “If I come with you, you leave the town alone? All of it?”

“Join me, and my ship will be underway within the hour,” the officer promised. “I will explain on the way. There is little time to waste.”

“Ellen, tell Bobby where I went. He’ll understand.” Sam didn’t wait for acknowledgment, following the officer onto the ship.

 

As promised, the ship was out of port as soon as could be managed. The officer took Sam to his cabin. “I’m sure, living where you do, that you are aware of your brother’s activities.”

“Not specifics, but yes, I know he’s a pirate. You said he was in trouble.”

“He is. He’s been taken by Yellow-Eyed Freddy. The pirate who killed your father.”

Sam’s blood went cold. He’d never heard the name, but his dreams were often filled with a pirate with bright yellow eyes. Dreams that, over the past three months, had become almost nightly. “Why do you care what happens in a pirate feud?”

“There are two types of pirates. Black Jack Winchester and his son Mean Dean are one type. They search for gold, raid ships, evade the law… but they have a sort of honor. A person who yields to a Winchester can expect to be treated fairly, no matter what – they’re left alive with the means to get themselves to port, no one is tortured or raped or mutilated. Obviously, we don’t approve of those sorts of pirates, but we find they’re the best check on the other kind.”

“Yellow-Eyed Freddy is the other kind. Yielding to his kind is only asking for your death to be more prolonged and humiliating. Your father was devoted to hunting down this particular one on a deal with the Royal Navy, a deal that Dean took up when he became a captain himself, which is why I’m here.”

Sam’s blood ran cold. He’d never known about the deal. The thought of Dean being held by one of the bad pirates terrified him. “What’s the plan?”

“Freddy has made it known that he will release Dean if you will take his place. The plan is to bring you onto the ship under pretense of making the exchange.”

“Dean would never let that happen. I don’t care what they’ve done to him, Dean will never sit and watch while you hand me over to a pirate crew to save him.”

The officer smiled, a somewhat cruel smile. “We’re counting on that. Dean will start a commotion. My crew will respond by joining his fight. I get you and Dean back to this ship. The three of us will be enough to crew the ship long enough to get you back home, where Dean can sign on with another ship if he chooses, even if my men lose the fight with Freddy’s.”

“You’d sacrifice your men for Dean? An entire crew for one man? Why?”

“Every man on this ship knows what they signed up for. Dean Winchester is far more valuable than any crew – he has a way of convincing pirates to follow him. We even believe that some of Freddy’s men might turn and follow Dean instead, which certainly improves our odds in the fight. If they don’t, we still believe the main objective of this mission can be achieved.”

 

The plan worked almost perfectly. Dean started struggling the second he saw Sam, and even managed to get a hand free and steal one of his guard’s knife. The navy men took the small commotion and made it a ship-wide struggle. The officer grabbed Dean’s hand, and then Sam’s.

That’s when things went sideways. The officer had lost his glove in getting to Dean, which meant that his bare skin was on Sam’s. Both men started glowing. The officer stopped short, staring at Sam with his blue eyes wide open. “This is…”

“Unexpected, yeah, I’ll bet, but we gotta get Sammy off this ship while he’s glowing now, so can we just run and deal with that later?” Dean said.

“Right.” They ran, not letting go of each other’s hands until they made it back to the Navy ship.

Dean jerked away and started back. “Dean, where are you going?” Sam asked.

“I got a job to do, and a chance to do it,” Dean said. “You’re safe. You stay here with your…”

“Now, now, Mean Dean Jackson Winchester, don’t be so impatient!” Yellow-Eyed Freddy hopped down from the cannon he’d been sitting on. “I don’t know why the Royal Navy thinks I’m stupid enough to fall for such an obvious fake tactic. Like they’d march an innocent boy onto my ship in exchange for a pirate, no matter what kind of deal they had with him and his family!”

The officer let go of Sam’s hand and drew his sword. “Of course, now, your men are tied up fighting with mine, you’re on my ship outnumbered three to one.”

“Only if I came alone!” Freddy lifted a hand, and two more figures popped out of hiding. “My children, Tom and Meg.”

The officer nodded and raised his sword. Two more naval seamen popped out. “As I said. You’re outnumbered three to one.”

Freddy smirked, but there was a touch of uneasiness in his eyes. “You know, I’m just a pirate and you’re a fancy officer of the Royal Navy, but I’m pretty sure five on three is less than three on one. And really, Sammy there’s a blacksmith, not a pirate or a seaman, can you really count him?” Sam agreed. He’d fight, but the odds weren’t as good as the officer seemed to think.

One of the seamen, a blonde woman, tossed Sam a sword. “I’m willing to bet he can hold his own. Captain, you’re sure about this?”

“I’m sure. Shall we begin?” He leveled his sword at Freddy and then brought it up to fighting position.

Once the fighting began, it quickly became obvious why the captain had been so confident. Sam went for Meg, who was closest to him, but Meg barely even tried to defend herself. She winked. “Hold on a sec, would you, hot stuff?” She drew a knife and threw it toward Tom. Sam didn’t understand – until the knife lodged in Tom’s shoulder instead of one of his assailants. “Go help your brother fulfill your family duty while I take care of my dear brother, would you?”

With Meg’s betrayal, Tom went down quickly, and Freddy dropped his sword and held up his hands. “I yield.”

“Surrender accepted. Dean, fulfill your duty.”

“Oh? I thought your precious honor wouldn’t let you kill a captive,” Freddy said, smirk still in place.

“By the authority of the Crown, I pronounce you guilty of piracy, murder, rape, and a host of additional charges too long to list. The penalty is death, to be carried out by my agent.” Castiel nodded at Dean, and Dean swung. Freddy’s head rolled, the smirk finally gone from the face.

Meg sauntered up to the captain. “Okay. So, obviously, the terms of our deal have changed.”

“Yes. Obviously. The ship is still yours, and you and any of your crew who obeyed your command to fight for show unless my men broke orders are free to go. Stay on the right side of the line, Meg. Don’t make me come after you or take out a contract on you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m off. Sammy, you take care of this man, you hear me?” Meg blew a kiss to the captain and headed back to her ship. 

 

Before long, almost all of the Navy men returned from the pirate ship, with only superficial wounds. Once the captain had a report, he retired to his cabin, taking Dean and Sam with him. “Sam, I apologize for the deception. I couldn’t know if Freddy would take the bait like Meg said he would, and I have no idea how well you could have pulled off the deceit.”

“What were the original terms of the deal?” Dean asked. “This something that’s gonna come back to bite us on the ass?”

“No. The original terms of the deal were for Meg and I to become involved in a sexual relationship. Given my one true surprise of the day, that part of the deal had to be scrapped.” He looked over at Sam. “What do we do now? As my soulmate, you’re welcome on my ship, but that would make it difficult for you to see your brother; returning home or going with him when he finds his new crew would make it difficult for you to see me.”

“Well, uh, first of all can I get your name? You’ve known mine all along, but…”

“Ah, yes. My name is Castiel Donner.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something, Captain Donner?” Dean asked. Castiel looked to him, one eyebrow raised. “Dad was promised a full pardon in exchange for his service. They told me I inherited that promise as long as I took on Dad’s obligation.”

“Of course I remember that. We keep our promises, Dean. You’ll have your full pardon.”

“Then, if I’ve got a full pardon, and I’m not abandoning a ship or a crew, I got no reason to keep pirating. You lost a couple men today, seems you could use a couple extra hands…”

Castiel tilted his head, studying Dean. “You don’t wish to continue your life of freedom?”

“Nah. Only did the pirate thing to honor Dad’s memory, and now that Yellow-Eyed Freddy’s dead and Mom’s avenged…”

“Wait, _what_?” Sam broke in.

“That’s why Dad got into pirating, to hunt Freddy. He was on a merchant ship with Mom and the two of us, and Freddy killed Mom. Dad never gave me details and I don’t want to know, but knowing Freddy… I’d bet my pardon that it wasn’t pretty.” He turned back to Castiel. “So, yeah. Dad’s mission is complete, Mom’s avenged, Sam’s got a chance at something rare and special, if giving up the freedom of being a pirate for being in the navy means he gets to take that chance, just tell me what the joining ritual involves.”

“Me too,” Sam said. “I’m not gonna just sit around your ship using supplies that the people who are actually working could use. I need to work. Do something useful.”

“Very well, then. Next time we’re in an appropriate port, I’ll notify my superiors.”


End file.
